IFAD team visits country

A delegation from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) headed by its assistant president Lakshmi Menon and Asia Pacific director Hoonae Kim is in Nepal this week.

In collaboration with the Nepali government and the Asia and Pacific Division, the Independent Office of Evaluation organised a National Roundtable Workshop for the Nepal Country Programme Evaluation (CPE), today in Kathmandu.

Participants at the workshop included representatives from the government, civil society organisations, academia, private sector and donor partners. The objectives of the Nepal CPE national roundtable workshop were to discuss the main issues emerging from the Nepal CPE; provide inputs for the preparation of the evaluation’s Agreement at Completion Point; and provide an opportunity for reflecting on key issues for the forthcoming Nepal Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP).

The COSOP is established through a participatory process by the Country Programme Management Team (CPMT) grouping representatives of the government, private sector and civil society as well as farmer organisations. The CPMT will determine the country's national plans, agriculture development strategy and the needs of smallholders farmers, and the strategic orientations to be taken by the IFAD funded project for the next six years (2013-2018).

In addition to participating in the workshop on 23 January, the IFAD delegation from Rome conducted a field visit to the sites of an IFAD-funded project — the Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme. The visit offered the IFAD delegation an opportunity to directly hold discussions with beneficiaries and their groups, project staff, district-level government authorities and others, as well as see project activities on the ground.

A number of high-level official bi-lateral meetings with the government were organised on 22 January, in Kathmandu.